Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

Peter King: ‘almost 90 percent of the terrorist crimes are carried out by the Muslim community’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4ea1JhAExi4

Interviewed on Fox News yesterday, Republican Congressman Peter King justified the resumption of his hearings on the supposed radicalisation of Muslim Americans:

What I am very concerned about is that while the overwhelming majority of Muslims are good people, the fact is even though Muslims are 1 percent of the population, almost 90 percent of the terrorist crimes are carried out by the Muslim community. And there are not enough people in the community willing to step forward and speak out against this and cooperate with law enforcement.

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County appeals judge’s ruling on mosque approval

Posted on by Bob Pitt

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Rutherford County officials are appealing a judge’s ruling that voided the construction approval for a local mosque.

Chancellor Robert Corlew last month ruled that the county violated Tennessee’s Sunshine Law by not providing sufficient notice for the May 2010 meeting where the mosque was approved.

County attorneys argued that officials followed their standard procedure for informing the public of that meeting. In his ruling, Corlew implied that they should have taken additional steps because of the intense public interest in the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro.

On Thursday, county attorneys filed a notice of appeal. In the notice, they question whether requiring a different standard of public notice for the mosque is a violation of the U.S. Constitution and Tennessee Constitution.

Associated Press, 22 June 2012

US conservative think tank embraces Islamophobia

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Michael Rubin AEINathan Lean reports that one of the oldest and most influential US conservative think tanks, the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI), has announced that its resident scholar Michael Rubin will join Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch on a 10-day tour of Turkey, which has been organised by the David Horowitz Freedom Center.

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Norwich pub bans EDL from meeting

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Norwich CasualsMeetings of the controversial English Defence League have been banned at a Norwich pub after a string of complaints.

About 45 members of the group, which is associated with violent demonstrations, have met at the Marlpit pub in Hellesdon Road. No trouble was reported and another meeting was booked for last weekend. But after complaints about the meetings from an anti-EDL group, the pub’s owners, Enterprise Inns, banned the EDL and the meeting was cancelled.

A spokesman for Enterprise said the licensee had been “reminded of their obligations”. She said: “We have spoken to the publican, who we understand has instructed pub staff to ensure no further meetings of the English Defence League are hosted at the Marlpit pub.”

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Pentagon probe finds teaching of anti-Islam material at military school showed poor judgment … but was only meant to ‘stimulate discussion’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Dooley presentation
One of the slides from a presentation that was merely intended to ‘stimulate discussion’

Poor judgment and poor oversight led to the teaching of anti-Islamic material at a military school for officers, the Pentagon said Wednesday

Though an Army lieutenant colonel who taught the class has been relieved of his teaching duties, investigators recommended reviewing the actions of two civilian officials at the school to see if they also should face discipline, the Defense Department said in a statement. A second military officer will receive counseling.

Materials in a course for military officers at Joint Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Va., portrayed the U.S. as at war with Islam. That’s an idea counter to repeated assertions by U.S. officials that the war being fought by America is one against terrorists.

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CAIR asks FBI to investigate Geller’s call to destroy Florida mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The South Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-SFL) today called on the FBI to investigate a call by Pamela Geller, the leader of an anti-Muslim hate group, to demolish a mosque in that state.

Geller, who appears as a regular guest on FOX News, posted an article on her blog, titled “Obama’s DOJ secretly drops terrorism charges in Taliban Case,” calling for a Florida Mosque to be demolished. This comes after the Department of Justice dropped charges against Irfan Khan, one of the defendants that was recently arrested and indicted on terrorism support charges.

“Calling for the destruction of a mosque may incite people to commit acts of violence against ordinary Muslims,” says CAIR-SFL Executive Director Nezar Hamze. “We are taking this call for the destruction of an American house of worship very seriously and have reported it to the FBI for review.”

CAIR press release, 20 June 2012

One Direction’s Zayn Malik branded a ‘pimp’ for Islam

Posted on by Bob Pitt

One Direction with puppies
One Direction: don’t be fooled by the cute puppies – it’s all an Islamist plot

One Direction star Zayn Malik has been accused of “enticing jihad” and “pimping Islam” to young female fans in an outrageous online attack. Right wing blogger Debbie Schlussel warned parents to “keep their daughters away” from the British boyband, currently on a sell-out US tour.

The American claimed Zayn, 19, had posted tweets for fans about Ramadan and Allah. She ranted: “The scary thing is that millions of girls in America and around the world are infatuated with the members of One Direction, including Malik. He knows the power he has over these mindless girls and is using that influence to preach the Islamic faith. It’s dangerous.”

 

She even blasted Zayn for wearing a keffiyeh – a cotton scarf – which she called “official garb of Islamic terrorism”.

Schlussel ended the blog with: “Keep your daughters away from Zayn Malik’s enticing jihad. With the boy band One Direction, it’s all about pimping Islam amid the deceptive visage of angelic, effeminate boys in a band. Yup, for them there is definitely One Direction: facing Mecca.”

Sun, 20 June 2012

See also Sheila Musaji, “Debbie Schlussel discovers ‘boy band jihad’?”, The American Muslim, 12 June 2012

Is anti-Muslim bias an issue in rejection of Minnesota Islamic center plan?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Eight months ago, the St. Anthony City Council denied a Christian congregation’s proposal to move to a building in an area zoned for light-industrial use. Last week, the council struck down an attempt to locate an Islamic center in a similarly zoned area. City leaders say their actions were consistent, based on land-use issues and not religious discrimination.

But supporters of the center wonder whether discrimination was a factor in the council’s rejection, and they point to the hateful comments directed at the Muslims by a few residents at a recent council meeting.

In addition, both religious groups are made up primarily of dark-skinned, native Africans. Census data show that only about 400 of St. Anthony’s 8,000 residents are black, and none sits on the City Council. Would a white Lutheran congregation’s petition have been approved?

The answers aren’t clear-cut, which was why it was prudent for the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations to ask the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate.

Editorial in Star Tribune, 19 June 2012

‘My testimony to Peter King’s hearing on American Muslim radicalization’ – an astroturf Muslim writes

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Asra Nomani explains why she decided to testify at the latest in Republican Congressman Peter King’s series of hearings on the supposed radicalisation of American Muslims: “To me, the hearings do not represent a witchhunt and Congressman King is no Joe McCarthy.”

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Marseille ‘mega-mosque’ gets go-ahead

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Marseille mosque modelA French appeals court granted permission Tuesday for the building of a mega-mosque in the southern city of Marseille that has been touted as a symbol of Islam’s growing place in France.

The court overturned an October ruling by Marseille’s administrative tribunal that cancelled the project’s construction permit for supposed failures to meet urban-planning requirements.

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